Mountain West not expanding anytime soon

Despite reports that suggested otherwise last week, the Mountain West Conference is not going to be expanding in the immediate future, according to Kevin McGuire of NBC Sports’ College Football Talk.

“The entire membership expressed great support for the continued development of the Conference,” Commissioner Craig Thompson said in a statement. “There is genuine excitement about the growth which has transpired in the less than three years under the present alignment.”

Thompson himself started the expansion rumors last week by implying that the MWC “would leave a light on” for BYU, who is independent in football and plays in the West Coast Conference in basketball, and another report suggested that both Rice and Texas-El Paso were considering moving on from Conference USA. Considering how the MWC has just 11 schools for basketball and 12 in football, adding some competition to the mix certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea.

But that requires negotiations and jumping through a lot of hoops, especially with football schedules planned years in advance and thus, at least for the time being, it looks like the Mountain West will stay just as it is barring a new development.